Hindustan Times Coverage
5 Feb 2016
Lucknow
HTC
LUCKNOW: While no one can deny the wisdom in Kabir’s poetry, not many would have linked the messages in his couplets with investment advice. However this is exactly what happened at the gathering of financial advisers and investors held at Hotel Arif Castles on Thursday. Speaking at the event, Vinayak Sapre, investment advisor said, “Kabir may have lived his life in penury but his dohas (couplets) contain amazing wealth management mantras.”
“I have studied the writings of both Kabir and Rahim. Their dohas are brilliant for students who want to manage finance. For example, ‘Aachhe din paachhegaye, hari se kiyana het. Abpachhtaye hot kya, chidiya chug gayikhet’. The message that we can draw from this is that if one plans financial freedom in one’s good days, say when we are young, then we will not have to regret when we retire. Otherwise we will have to depend on others to take care of us. There is nothing worse than financial dependence. This doha explains that we have to make the best use of our opportunities.”
Sapre emphasised that investors must choose advisors who can warn them to help escape bad investments and steer them through hard times, for instance, when the market is down. “It’s the duty of an investment consultant to make more visits to his client when the latter is facing losses,” he said.
Quoting an example from Rahim’s writings - Pawasdekhi Rahim mann, koyalsadhemaun. Abdadurvaktabhaye, humkopoochatkaun - Sapre encouraged his audience to wait for the right opportunity to make any investment related move. Explaining the message of the couplet, he said, “During monsoon, the koyal remains silent while the frogs croak. Likewise a wise investor waits for a good opportunity before investing and a wise financial advisor waits for the right time to offer his advice.”
Sapre said that Kabir and Rahim have a wealth of management mantras to offer and that their works needed to be explored further. “They penned all this centuries ago but their writings are relevant even today,” said Sapre.
Times of India Coverage
Feb 05 2016 : The Times of India (Lucknow)
Kabir's gems for success in share bazaar
Arunav Sinha
Lucknow
Thus goes a couplet by Bhakti era sufi saint Kabir: Kabirakhadaa bazaar mein, Maangesabkikhair Na kahu se dosti, nakahu se bair (Kabira stands in the market place, wishes good to all No friends he has, no enemies). Almost 500 years after his death, his words of wisdom are being used by advisors to infuse rational thinking among investors, bazaar in their context being the financialstock market.
Besides Kabir, Mughal era poet Abdul Rahim Khan-eKhana, better known as Rahim, has been cited by the gurus to impart similar lessons to prospective financial con sultants and investment advisors.
At a session held in the city on Thursday , investment advisors learnt to interpret a number of dohas (couplets) to improve their skills of assisting clients in wealth creation. The session started with a Kabirdoha on who is an honest advisor. `Sadhu aisachahiye, jaisasoopsubhay , Saar saarkogahirahe, thotha de udaay' (A wise man is like a winnow basket that keeps the grain and threshes out all husk).
This was followed by appropriate use of dohas on ability of an advisor to empthise with the clients and prepare them for contingency .
Later, elaborating the concept of using Kabir and Rahim's doha to infuse motivation among investment advisors, Vinayak Sapre said, “In India, investment is based more on sentiment than rationale. The need of the hour is to employ rational thinking while making investments. Since, Rahim and Kabir are both rational thinkers and thought centuries ahead of their times, their relevance can't be dp.“
Hailing from Varanasi, Sapre is now based in Mumbai and said he was inspired by Kabir, who was from Varanasi too. Script of TV serial Kabir was written by Sapre's friend's father and the philosophies made an impression on him.
Some other dohas Sapre cited were related to retirement planning, loyalty of client and never underestimating a new or prospective client.
Commenting on behaviour pattern of investors who are shocked by sudden fluctuations in the market, Sapre said, “We are hit less by normal inflation, more by aspirational inflation.“